


Misgiven Gifts

by prophet_of_troy



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Gift Giving, Hermione is about to be Minister for Magic, Kingsley is Minister for Magic, Mutual Attraction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-26
Updated: 2019-12-26
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:35:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 679
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21975193
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prophet_of_troy/pseuds/prophet_of_troy
Summary: Hermione and Kingsley exchange Christmas gifts, only to both be a bit disappointed.
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Kingsley Shacklebolt
Comments: 2
Kudos: 26





	Misgiven Gifts

Hermione was nervous. No, not nervous, she was anxious; standing outside of the Minister of Magic’s office with her heart pounding. She took a deep breath and brushed her hair back. She looked down at the gift, turning it in her hands and making sure there were no tears in the brightly coloured paper. No, it was still perfectly wrapped. Alright, she was ready. She knocked firmly three times.

“Come in.”

Her heart beat faster at the baritone of his voice and she fought a smile. She smoothed her skirt and opened the door with a prepared smile. “Happy Christmas, Minister.” 

He smiled back when he saw her, leaning back in his chair away from his desk where he’d been writing. “Happy Christmas, Hermione. I wish you would just call me Kinglsey. After all we’ve gone through, ‘Minister’ seems a bit pretentious. Particularly when you stand to replace me in a matter of weeks.”

She laughed nervously (anxiously). “Kings! The Wizengamot don’t vote for another two weeks.”

“I said that, didn’t I?”

Hermione placed the gift on his desk and said again, “Happy Christmas.”

Kingsley leaned forward with an ‘aha’ expression and opened one of his drawers. He dug around a second and pulled out a small, wrapped box. “I have yours right here.”

“You didn’t have to.”

“Nonsense,” he said, waving the gift for her to take. “You’re a close friend, and you’ve been a godsend recently with the amount of paperwork we’ve been forced to go through with those Muggle memory adjustments we’ve had to do.”

She took it from him, a heavy sort of box, and been unwrapping as he was his. She watched his face more than what she was doing, waiting for his reaction. She was greeted with a hesitant smile at the set of bookends. Her stomach flopped at him trying to make his smile bigger. His voice had an added edge to it, higher.

“Oh! I-I love them!”  
  
*  
  
Kingsley did _not_ love them. He appreciated the thought, sure, and he supposed he had complained a bit at how his books kept falling off of his top-shelf every time his office door shut.

“Are you sure?” She asked, obviously doubting. 

He reinforced his enthusiasm again. “I do!”

It wasn’t that he hated them- though they were incredibly creepy gargoyle bookends- it was more anticlimactic than anything. Hermione watched him still as he stood and placed the bookends on either side of his books. They  _ did _ seem to suit the rest of his office, but those gargoyles were watching him. 

“Please,” he said, gesturing. “Open yours.”

He watched her finishing tearing the paper, watched it vanish as she did though she made no wand or verbal command for it to do so. When she was left with the book she brightened a bit and then deflated in guilt. She already had it.

He’d hoped she didn’t, it had only just come out, after all. He felt the urge to laugh, to smile, to ask her to dinner. He’d planned that, after he gave her the gift, to ask her if she’d like to. It wasn’t proper, he was more or less her boss, but now that he was on his way out he felt comfortable to ask. 

“You already have it, don’t you?”

She looked like she was going to lie, but then she grimaced. “I knew I shouldn’t have, but I wanted it so bad and I-I couldn’t resist. Though, I do love it! A-and yours? You don’t like the gargoyles, do you?”

Kingsley shrugged. “They’re watching me.”

She giggled, hiding her face with the book. He laughed with her, watching her face redden behind the book. She stopped, lowering it but still grinning. He cleared his throat, looking around as though they hadn’t just been laughing so loud. 

“In light of the circumstances,” he said finally. “Perhaps I could make it better by asking you to dinner?”

Her cheeks went aflame again and she met his eyes. They were alive, glittering with amusement and he almost caught his breath. “That sounds wonderful.”


End file.
